Modem chassis are used to support multiple cards. A modem chassis typically includes seventeen slots, each of which can accommodate a different configuration of card types. These card types include a Network Management Card (NMC), a Quad Modem Card that has four modems per card, a Hyper Density Modem Card (HDM) that has 24 modems plus the carrier per card, a Hyper Access Router Card (HARC) that routes calls to the network, and a PRI/TI Card that supports two carriers.
Each modem chassis can have different combinations and numbers of some or all of the foregoing cards. As a result maintaining a single configuration for all the shelves network-wide is very difficult.
Due to the differing assortment of cards per chassis, maintaining a single configuration for all of the shelves network-wide was difficult.
Conventionally, technicians load the code for each chassis on a chassis by chassis basis, by bringing up a view of each chassis and selecting the cards to be loaded. This is a time consuming process and required the attention of the technician for the duration of the load.
For each chassis, every setting that needed to be changed was done by single Signaling Network Management Protocol (SNMP) sets, which are not entirely reliable. The process was very time consuming, and resource intensive. There could be as many as 3500+ sets to a chassis. The SNMP set method can take up to 45 minutes or more.